Holy smokes, moving sucks

So I am taking a break from a very important task - packing!

I can't believe it. My time here in DC is almost over. And I didn't realize how hard it would be to leave.

I did my undergraduate degree at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. I loved Northampton. It was the perfect college town for me - walkable, intensely liberal, and quirky - but I was ready to leave.

But I don't know if I am ready to leave DC.

I wasn't planning on leaving so soon. In fact, I was planning to be here through the end of the kickball season. (Why else would I have joined?) But things happened and plans changed. Also I killed my 27th mouse two nights ago, which affirmed my decision to get out of my apartment.

My summer will take me to many places - Philadelphia, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Boston.

But I will miss my kickball team tremendously. I will miss the Hutchster for his intense loyalty to kickball as both a sport and as a way of life. No way did I know that I would become such good friends with the guy who walked in on me and Tim Lee hooking up. I will miss our captain Brian, as he is the nicest guy in the world (seriously), and his dog Wookie. I can't believe I just met Becki. There are so many other people to mention too: Lizzie (Z), her former roommate Jeremy, Brighton, Fred, Kat (my heckling fiend in crime), Adam Heller (whom I forgive for NEVER SHOWING UP THIS SEASON). Steve.

My sister Patty stared at me in a different way on Saturday night when she and her bff Olivia came to our kickball party at Grand Central. By this, I mean I wasn't sure she could take me that seriously. We play kickball and at the bar, we play flipcup. "Isn't that so college?" she'd asked. Perhaps. But it's fun. Kickball had a stable place in my life. As a member of the Lame Train of Life, without kickball (and frisbee; I played on a WAFC team for four seasons), I know I wouldn't see my friends as often nor would I have met as many people as I have in DC.

So I'm grateful.

Meanwhile Patty and Olivia did win huge brownie points in the eyes of Carter Rabasa, the founder of DCKickball and one of my and Hutch's reasons for living, when they walked up to where he was collecting donations for our charity, Project Northstar, and handed him an extra five bucks. "For no reason whatsoever except to give," Carter remarked when he came by me, the sister and Olivia later on Saturday night.

In closing, I leave you with a picture of my new digs and footage from our last game.
http://picasaweb.google.com/GoingBackToLA/ShabbosVictory2

Ohmygod we won

We friggin' won. We WON. First game of the season!

We had a full house too - me and Hutch, Brian, Fred, Lan, Kat (heckling from the sidelines and on the field), Ari, Jeremy, Zach, Jeff, Noah, Becki, Liz, Liz's gf Alisha, Brighton's friend Joanna. And the other team... well they didn't have enough guys. So inevitably we beat them. But we didn't know that.

Hutch can write up a far more effective write up than this. But lets' just say that Hutch, Brian and I got sick of losing and started strategizing. We were up by 3 at the end of the first inning, and swept the other team away by the end of the 3rd. Lizzie scored a run. She wants everyone to know that. Kat wanted dibs on the returning MVP dibs. Rookie MVP honors goes to Lan, for continuing our multi run streak in the first inning alone.

In the third inning, Steve was at first and I was behind him in right field and I kept yelling that I had his back. (This didn't go so well). Fred made the most bizarre loop around the bases and almost got Hutch out. Like somewhere between second and third, he made a detour or something. I didn't understand it.

Hutch totally took charge of the team strategy. I am so proud of him.

It was a heart racing, heart pumping round of kickball. I am going to be so sad when I have to leave.

Meanwhile the league party is at Grand Central in AdMo on June 9th.

At the bar, first we proved we were the better yellow against the goldenrod team ("Lickballs"), which was okay because there was a guy on that team who was sort of cute. Then we got together and ganged up on the team we beat earlier ("the Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins", whatever the hell that is). There was this dude on the green team who started totally hard core heckling us and Hutch and I would smack him on the forehead and scream back at him.

So see you again next week! I'll be the one with the cube.

Attitude is everything

So we lost. Again. But it's okay because we got to finish up the keg at Liz and Jeremy's afterward. (And I played pool there, which is a potentially bad idea.)

I think we may actually be at the bottom of the league. However, we finally found ourselves a decent first baseman (the Token Asian Guy, Dan) whom I think he'd be even more effective at second base or as short stop. So Adam Heller, where ARE you? Ari and I were the only ones to score runs; we were at the top of the line up, so Capts Brian and Hutch are doing something right.

Becki is on the injured list. She injured her thigh somehow, but I hope she makes it back next week.

Kat is our returning MVP because she got three fly balls in a row. Dan the TAG is the rookie MVP because he did an outstanding job tagging people out at first base.

Come out and see us next week. You'll find me on the sidelines cubing because watching the actual game itself is too stressful for me.